“For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory; while we look not at things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the
things which are not seen are eternal”. (2 Corinthians
4:16-18)
In the previous discussion on the dynamics
of faith, we focused on the fact that one should not mistake works for
faith.The scripture in James 2 shows two extremes of believers: those that want
to pray all the time, confess the word, worship and believe God but don’t want
to take any action towards what they believe, thus they pray and do not work.
The other extreme are those that have no word in their spirit, don’t know where
the promise is in the scripture, they don’t pray or get any revelation but just
want to work it! These are the workaholics. Their agitation for their future is
not based on God’s word but on what they can do exclusive of the word but Faith
is not exclusive of works, neither are works exclusive of faith. We realized
from what James said that the aloneness of faith makes it dead and doing works
without standing on a word makes faith dead as well. Faith is the final word of
God in your spirit precipitating actions but faithaholics have the attitude of faith with the corresponding
action, faith is believing God enough with the corresponding, equivalent and a
conforming, consistent attitude to what you believe. It’s not about crying out
to God or praising Him alone but your faith has to be worked out, there has to
be a corresponding action to what God said.
Faith is not about feeling because the Bible
says “the
just shall live by faith” (Hab2:4) and “we walk by faith and not by
sight” (2 Cor 5:7). For instance, a woman on the healing line in a
stretcher is asked to rise out of the stretcher and throw it away, instead she
starts thinking “What if nothing happens?
Can I really stand up because I can’t feel any strength in my bones or body?”.
Feelings or sight cannot be the basis of the life of a faithaholic, allow the word of God to nurture you into the right
attitude that God expects of you. Faith now becomes the resultant action
according to what you’ve received in your spirit and even though it does not
appeal to your five senses, yet you stand on a word with the certainty about
what God would have you do. It won’t always feel good and sensible to do
something that Someone you can’t see
or touch tells you to do.... Faith is the release of the word of God in your
spirit and we understand from John 1 that God is His Word, and everything that
was made was made by this same Word “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was
with God and the Word was God…All things were made by Him; and without Him was
nothing made” (John 1:1, 3). This means everything that you need for
your life can be made from the word of God released in your spirit! Faithaholics have an analogous approach
to the word, they are not just trying to do what someone said but are
consistent, focused and know exactly what the word of God can do in their
lives. They work not exclusive of faith or works but understand that they have
to prepare for what God has prepared for them and the only way to do that is to
believe and act it out. As a faithaholic,
you should never look away from the commandments of God no matter where you are
in life, because the bible says that “persecution
arises for the word’s sake” (Matt 13:21). This means that every word you
receive from God will be persecuted by situations around you. How many times
have you believed God for something but the next day, the opposite thing
happens and you feel like you don’t have faith? But this is faith; it’s the
confident assurance about God’s word despite the circumstances and situations
in your life. Faithaholics don’t look
away from God’s word; neither do they look away from the action that is
required, having believed God’s word. Many Christians also have this religious
approach when it comes to helping others, they say things like “God will help you, If God called you or if
it is His will, If God is God, he will do it” even when they have what it takes
to help solve the problem. James tells us that this kind of faith cannot save
anyone. You start to walk in faith that can save when you assume responsibility
of being the vessel that God uses to be a blessing to someone else. The God
kind of faith brings you from the realm of believing for yourself to having
faith that is responsible for someone else. This is not mere giving to
charities or setting up NGOs, but knowing that your giving and being a blessing
must spring from God’s word.Many times, when a person believes God for
something, the solution is already around him, God will always send someone (you)
to be the source of that blessing.
“Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure,
pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into you
bosom…” (Luke 6:38).
The scripture does not only talk about
the responsibility of the believer’s faith where others are concerned but also qualifies
the type of blessing God expects, not just “a blessing” to fulfill all
righteousness but a “pressed down,shaken together and running over blessing”,
this is faith. The highest realm of prosperity is posterity, when you are
able to bless someone after God has so blessed you. In our study of faith, we
realize that the whiles of faith is very critical because the moment you sow
the seed of the word of God which is faith, then there is a tendency for you to
get threatened by the weeds and elements of this world and be distracted by
those things that are not consistent with the word of God.
“While we look not on the things which are seen but
at the things which are not seen”
(2 Cor 4:18).
We in our major
text refers to the Corinthian Christians. Paul was talking to Christians not
just some people that believe in a deity somewhere, faith folks that understand
how God operates in His kingdom, that understand the power and potency of God’s
word even when they cannot feel anything, these people understand that His word
will come to pass no matter what. The word look not is “skopeo”, where the
word spy
is derived from and it refers to looking
at something from afar, looking at
the reality of something in your life. In the dynamics of faith, you must
understand that there are some things you should look on and some you should
not look unto. Seen refers to the things which we give thought to, things we
regard and generally, we tend to give thought to those things we are believing
God for, things that we lack, our problems. Paul says here that you shouldn’t
dwell on the things that you don’t have, you shouldn’t allow any situation or
person around you lie to you that where you are is the reality of where you
ought to be, don’t dwell on those things you can see around you. Why? Because
God has prepared a place for you and you have the legal right in faith to
believe God for it until you see the manifestation. This particular passage of
the bible is talking about faith because Paul says to look on things which
cannot be seen. Sometimes, you may find yourself in a place where your sense of
smell is assaulted by offensive odors but God is saying here that you should
walk through that place and ignore all you can smell. You have to understand
that the power of faith is you walking through that situation believing God and
God alone.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love Him”. (1
Corinthians 2:9)
This scripture is similar to our main
text in that it emphasizes how a man of faith is not one who works with his
mental accent because he doesn’t rely on what he can see, smell, touch or
taste. This doesn’t mean that God disregards how the situation smells or how
offensive it could be; faith is not a denial of facts. Faith looks at the facts
and tells it where it should go. God says here that you haven’t seen those
things he has prepared for you, your destiny and future, the anointing,
marriage, houses, cars, the nations you’ve been called to, the level of wealth
He’s bringing you to and these things can only be seen by faith. However, faith
is not mentioned here because you must understand that faith is the response of
your human spirit to God’s word. The word goes further to say that “But
God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10) because God
doesn’t expect you to walk in blind faith, He reveals these things to your
spirit through His word. For instance, you listen to a sermon or teaching about
your future and you receive the word in faith, that’s your future being
revealed to you. Faith is not what the situation or your life looks like or
what it smells like, faith is now: what God said now that must come to pass now, so nothing threatens faith apart from
the fear of the person releasing faith for anything.
Some believers have reduced the Holy
Spirit to a discerning Persona that just knows what you’ve done throughout the
week but that’s a shallow dimension of the use of the Spirit. The highest
dimension of the Holy Spirit is when He operate in you as God; it’s much more
than speaking in tongues. The evidence of the Holy Spirit in you cannot just be
speaking in tongues, our human spirit and the Holy Spirit has been made one,
there are no two spirits in you, there’s just one spirit and so when you speak
the word of God, it’s the utterance of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Paul told
the Corinthians that his speech was not in the enticing words of man but the
very word of God empowered by the Holy Spirit (1 cor. 2:4). Man’s word can be very enticing and make you
feel like you can do anything, for instance motivational speaking, but the word
of God is much more than enticement or motivational speaking, the word of God
in your mouth is able to do anything!
It’s certain from what the scripture
says that God has prepared things for every believer to walk towards; the
question now is “what is your attitude
towards those things God has prepared for you?”. For instance, a man going
to his house is called by his wife to know what she should prepare for his
dinner. He tells her and she prepares it but instead of going home expectantly,
he begins to worry and fret over what he would eat even though it’s been
prepared! This is the attitude of some believers to what God has already set before
them, an attitude of worry and fear. That’s why Jesus said the fowls of the air
do not sow or reap or gather into barns but are fed by your heavenly Father and
even lilies that don’t toil or spin are arrayed better than Solomon in all His
glory. How much more you, the son of God? Jesus said not to bother about such
things, which means He’s already worked out everything, He’s
not working
it out and all you have to do is trust in His promise. God is not like the
doctors or nurses that give you an antidote when you mistakenly take the wrong
drugs; when you make a mistake or wrong decision, God’s word has the power to
change everything as He speaks to you! This scripture in 1 Corinthians2:9 is
not a prayer point like many believe but is a statement of fact, a confession
of the word of God that you put in your mouth, its referring to the word of God
in your spirit but it has to be tangible enough for you to disregard everything
that your natural senses can perceive. You have to see it the word’s way and
this is faith. The physical eyes cannot see, the physical skin cannot feel
these things God has prepared but faith can see and feel what the natural
senses cannot. When you can see with the eyes of faith, that means you’ve got a
promise from the word and are ready to run with it. This makes you confident
that everything will be alright no matter what happens. No matter what you are
going through, God has already prepared everything before you, there is no need
to think or worry about it. The problem with the natural man is that he can’t
be in more than one place at the same time, so he can’t see what’s been
prepared for him but that’s not an issue for a believer because we are spirits.
A spirit can be in several places at once, a spirit can speak to things that
you cannot see presently but you see the result of the words spoken, that’s why
Jesus said we (believers) are like the wind that blows; you can feel it but
cannot see where it’s going to or where its coming from (John 3: 8).
David said in the Psalms that “Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my
head with oil; my cup runneth over” (Psalm 23: 5).The presence of an
enemy (symptoms, challenges, situations) is not an issue in the equation of
faith, even when this things are still there, you keep saying it and acting it.
Don’t let challenges distract you from what has been prepared. You have to get
to that level of faith where your feeling
is not an issue. For instance, sometimes you might feel sick but the truth is that you’ve been healed since Christ
shed His blood for you, so you are the healed and not the sick. The elements of this world have the
capability to reveal themselves to you
but that should not be a weakness to your faith but a challenge for your
faith, that’s why Paul says to “Fight the good fight of faith” (1
Timothy 6: 12). The word fight is
used because everything will not just bow to faith. Sometimes symptoms will
rise up, situations will challenge you and it seems like everywhere is dark, be
encouraged because the word of God spoken over your life will surely come to
pass.
Faith is like a prerecorded game, it’s
already been played and you just watch it, so when you have already seen the
end of the match, you are not bothered by your team losing at first because you
know the end. The case of football and its fans can be used to explain faith.
Many football fans watch without faith, they start out shouting about how they
will win but as the game progresses, they start to feel afraid because a player
is sent off, or a chance to score is missed and they start to question if the
team would actually win. As Christians, we are more than football fans, we are
fans of the destiny that God has prepared for us and we never give up because
we understand that faith is prerecorded, it’s already done and I’ve seen it by
faith. Have you ever watched a football match where your own team isn’t
delivering as you want and they seem to just be running around the field? Right
there, every fan doesn’t see that their team isn’t down and out yet just
because they have failed. All the
information about victory has been given in faith. A lot of times, many
football fans cannot stand watching their star players messing up in the game; as
a believer,who or what is your star in
the world, is it the word of God or what people say?
Because it’s a prerecorded game, you
watch with your eyes gazed on the end, on the victory. Your mind is made up and
you are so sure because there is information about the match that you have
before the time you watch it. Don’t watch the match of destiny without a word
for the end, your confession should always be that “I know the end; I know my Redeemer lives”. Job knew the
importance of this and that’s why he said “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him…” (Job 13: 15) long before God healed him of his affliction. Today,
however, we don’t have many “yet will I
trust” believers: instead, we have microwave faith folks who want to
confess a thing today and receive it tomorrow but sometimes you have to wait to
see your promise, sometimes your patience will be tested and all you have is
the “peace symptom”. Sometimes, God
wants us to delay those things we are believing for so we can be a blessing to
someone else, He is not thinking about you alone when faith is concerned. God
wants your faith to get to the level where it’s a blessing to someone else and
so faith isn’t ripe until other people can receive the blessing coming from
your faith. The life of a believer is one of victory in spite of any sickness
or disease that may come, we see this in (1 John 5: 4) “whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith”. I believe that the
word whatsoever is not really
appropriate because it implies an inanimate object that cannot speak or hear
because it has no ears and faith comes by hearing the word of God. The word whosoever is more suitable because this
implies a person that can have a word in his spirit for where God is taking
him/her and operate the realm of an overcomer by faith.
God has prepared everything for you but
sometimes it may get darker and you have a mid-sea experience like Jesus and
His disciples where you feel it’s the end but this doesn’t change anything. But
Jesus knew the end all along; He understood that His death would take place on
the cross and the cross alone, so the storms and situations never threatened
Him. Believe God for the end; don’t stop mid-sea until you reach your
destination.“But the ship was now in the midst of the seas, tossed with waves: for
the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto
them, walking on the sea….And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou,
bid me come unto thee on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come
down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus” (Matthew
14: 24-25, 28-29). There may be challenges that threaten your faith, but you
have to realize that men of faith are not the ones who walk confidently in a
storm, men of faith walk with their legs shaking like Peter. Its faith that
gets you to step out of the boat, stand on the impossible, do the invincible,
defeat gravity and walk on water. But when you step out, the boisterous winds
will always tell you it cannot be done, the storms will always say it’s impossible
but Jesus said to Peter “Come!” like He’s saying to you now,
don’t stop there, you can face that
storm, don’t let the devil tell you a lie and do the impossible because you are
a child of destiny! It’s time to release what you’ve got, don’t be scared,
write another vision, make it plain and if it seems that you are sinking cry
out like Peter “But when he saw the wind
boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried, saying, ‘Lord, save
me’ . And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him…” (Matthew
14:30). The eleven staying back in
the boat might just be part of the reason Peter began to sink, just imagine 12
men standing on the water walking towards Jesus, anyone starting to sink would
be encouraged by the faith of the others.
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man
sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17).Your staying
back in the boat where your life is concerned might just be the reason other
believers around you are not being encouraged. When others see the way you walk through a situation and the way
you handle a failure, their failing will not be an issue because they have seen
you came through that storm. That’s why you cannot give up on where you are,
you cannot be ashamed to share your testimony because God is about to bring
someone to that point from where they are now but they will think it’s a bad
thing until they see you, that has come out of that same place. That’s why you
have to come out of that situation, win! This is the time to get a word in your
spirit and be so challenged about it.
Faith is the ability to accept the
prepared victory and know where the turnaround begins, believe and accept the
prepared victory in your spirit. There is no such thing as faith association
because sometimes you may be the only one in the boat who wants to do what God
says you should do, go ahead and step out because the mid sea experience is
bound to happen but is your faith tough enough to go through it? The most
powerful definition of faith is that, faith is consistent. It’s not down
today because you lost your job and up tomorrow because you got a new one. Many
people confess the word of God with fear like football fans watching a match
and screaming their heads off because they don’t know the end but that’s not the
case of a faithaholic because there
is a word for the end. It’s just like going to watch a fixed match, you’re
confident because you know the end even before the game starts. The fact that
you know the end of the match makes you settled without any pressures. It’s
possible to go through high waters without high blood pressure because you have
a peace that surpasses all understanding by making your requests known unto God
instead of being anxious.
Don’t confess the word of God with fear
in your spirit, in the face of storms. Without faith you cannot survive
anything in life because the just shall live by faith, your living is
predicated upon your faith. The devil may try all kinds of things in your face
but he knows when you have faith. You should have radical faith that will push
you to go through the crowd and touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, like the woman
with the issue of blood “And Jesus went with him; and much people
followed Him, and thronged Him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of
blood twelve years…And when she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and
touched His garment. For she said if I may touch but His clothes, I shall be
whole”(Mark 4: 25, 27-28).
In the realm of faith, winning is not a
tentative possibility, it’s not a probability; faith knows the truth about the
end. If God has prepared things for you, which He has, there is no need to get
nervous about any situation. Many times, we overstretch what faith ought to be,
all you have to do is reject the report of the enemy, believe God’s word with
corresponding actions! Faith is not moving from the known to an unknown, you
confess that you believe you’ll get what you want but when things start to look
different, you start having all kinds of funny religious thoughts like “Only God knows the end” and say things
like “By God’s grace” as if grace is
what God uses for rejects. Grace is to be used with confidence; even mercy
should not be begged for but asked for with confidence. You don’t have to be
dramatic and cry or be afraid over everything; a cockroach on the floor or
birds crying outside your window. Don’t meditate on such things; get a word in
your spirit! Faith treats circumstances
from the perception of the known, “I
know my Redeemer lives, I know the end of this, I know He won’t leave or
forsake me”, that’s how to talk in faith. Faith is moving from the known to
the known.
Faith is not treating a situation with
more confidence. Faith is confidence in the word of God, not confidence in
yourself. It’sconfidence in the word of God that makes you go through a
situation and ignore losing moments in the match of your life. Faith is not
speaking with more confidence like soldiers before a war who motivate
themselves before they go off. Faith is not courageous speaking, it’s a
pre-knowledge of the end victory. Faith talks based on what has been said by
the word of God. Faith is God speaking the outcome
and you acting the outcome. Peace does not accept loss, so don’t say
you have peace in your heart and do nothing, faith is action and by faith, the
elders obtained a good report (result). Get your good report!
What do you have to do?
v Find
a promise in the word of God.
v Ask
for the promise in the word of God.
v Believe
that word of God.
v Confess
that word of God.
v Praise
God for that word of God.
v Dwell
on nothing else except that promise in word of God.
The Holy Spirit does not lead a believer
based on feelings, many people believe that when they feel good then God must
be talking to them and when they don’t, then God is not involved but this is not
the case. Sometimes, you don’t feel good and it’s the Holy Spirit talking to
you, He makes you feel the burden and infirmities of others as you intercede
for them. This is the time for you to speak the word of God to yourself and
walk in results, not just learn about faith and stay in the realm of believing.
Paul prayed for the Ephesian church that the eyes of their understanding, their
human spirit is flooded with light, with knowledge and information because it
is with these eyes that we look on things which cannot be seen, it’s how we
operate in faith. Are you a faithaholic?
‘Bowale Abrahams,
Visionary Pastor, The Burning Church.
NOTE: All scriptures are taken from the Authorised
King James Version.
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